


That in itself is a tremendous thing

by kaijuborn



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: BROT3, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 05:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7787989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaijuborn/pseuds/kaijuborn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lúcio, Hana and Junkrat just hanging out, being friends, and being happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That in itself is a tremendous thing

**Author's Note:**

> It makes me really happy when people draw/write Lúcio, Hana and Junkrat as being friends, so I wanted to add my own take to the mix! Enjoy!

It took Hana the better part of half an hour to sneak away from her bodyguards so that she could finally go around the base and explore a bit on her own. She had been on Gibraltar for almost a week now and still hadn't been allowed a moment's peace and quiet to do what she wanted to. The first few days had been nothing but meetings, writing and signing contracts, long information talks and non-disclosure agreements; after that came her medical exams and diagnosis, and her combat analysis, training program specifications, mission protocols and combat strategies.

 

All of it had been incredibly boring. She was itching to get out and fight.

 

It was almost half past nine in the evening when Hana found a loophole in her guard's defense; a second exit from the ladies' room which they hadn't noticed. She left them standing by the other door, waiting for her to finish. She did feel a little bit bad for them, as she knew they would freak out when they realized she was gone. Making sure she was safe was their job after all, but during the years she had dealt with enough stuff to know that she could take care of herself.

 

The scenery was beautiful at this time of day, the sun just setting and painting everything in golden, pink and orange hues. Hana had never really spent much time by the ocean and just being near it made it feel like she was on holiday, for some reason. She tip-toed down an abandoned pathway, scaring off a couple of seagulls and listening to them chatter as they flew away. She wanted to take a picture of the scenery and upload it to her social media, but she wasn't allowed in case of the slim chance that someone recognized the location from her photography.

 

Pausing for a moment, she pursed her lips and looked around for something to take a photo of that didn't give her away. Her eyes fell on a small shack squeezed in between two buildings, almost on the verge of falling off the cliffside. Dark smoke was billowing out of the open door.

 

Hana frowned and swung over the railing, easily dropping down onto the asphalt below with light feet. Hurrying over to the shack, she put away her phone and instead touched the bracelet around her left wrist, an old habit. It was the slim, lightweight remote that allowed her to call down a mech, if and when she needed it. Touching it always made her feel safer.

 

“Hellooo?” Hana wondered, poking her head in through the open door, keeping well clear of the smoke.

 

“Nyeh? Whaddaya want?” a nervous voice called out.

 

“Oh my gosh!”

 

Hana had to take several steps back as a young man appeared in the door opening, peering suspiciously at her. She blinked. The man was not what she had been expecting; he had a mechanical arm and a leg, frizzy blond hair that stood in all directions, a dirty face, bushy eyebrows and a skittish gaze. He stood weirdly too, hunched over, as if he didn't know how to properly straighten his back.

 

“Oh my gosh”, Hana repeated, slower this time. “Oh, you're Junkrat, aren't you!” She beamed towards him. She had been debriefed on all active and pending Overwatch agents. This guy, and his huge partner Roadhog, were definitely two of the ones that stood out the most. She knew they had been criminals, or _were_ according to some, but if they were being considered to be added to Overwatch then they couldn't be _that_ bad.

 

“Who wants ta know?” Even though Junkrat hadn't confirmed it, there was no doubt it was him.

 

“Hi! I'm Hana Song, aka D.Va, newest member of Overwatch!” She threw up a peace sign towards him and continued talking before he had a chance to reply. “What are you doing in here?”

 

“What's it to ya?”

 

“Oh, come on, I'm just curious!” She tried to look over his shoulders, but he kept moving back and forth, blocking her view. “Pleeease!”

 

“It's nothin' special!” Junkrat persisted. He reached out and grabbed her by the arms to make her stand still. “Jus' makin' some ammunition. Traps. Explosives.”

 

Hana's eyes went wide.

 

“Things that go _boom_?” she said, grinning. Junkrat slowly let go of her again.

 

“Yeeaah…” he said, still eying her.

  
“What are you packing?” Hana wondered. “Me, I've got fusion cannons. Two of 'em. Continuous high-damage firing without needing to reload.” She crossed her arms and waggled her eyebrows.

 

“Where?” Junkrat looked at her as if she was hiding it underneath her dress. She giggled.

 

“In my mech! You really don't know who I am? I'll show you sometime! Can I see what you've got now?”

 

“Ehh, I gueess…” Junkrat begun, clearly still considering it. Hana took the opportunity to slink past him into the shack. “Hey!”

 

Hana stepped into the dark shack and took a look around. Most of the smoke had cleared out by now, but it still smelled of it. There were a couple of tables in there, and on them as well as on the floor were tons and tons of ammunition, grenades, metal pieces, wiring, screws and bolts, fuses, tools and a bunch of other things she didn't even know what they were.

 

“Whoa, you weren't kidding! This stuff's awesome!” Hana said. She spotted a large grenade launcher lying on one of the tables and went to pick it up. It was heavy in her hands and looked like it had been pieced together with anything and everything available. “Cool.”

 

“Careful there, mate”, Junkrat said, taking it from her again. “Safety's off.”

 

“Can I try it?”

 

Junkrat just looked at her for a moment. Hana wondered what they must look like together. Junkrat: notorious criminal wanted worldwide for theft, arson, robbery, general mayhem and double parking. Covered in soot, hair smoldering, skin littered with scars and two mechanical limbs. Hana Song: world famous pro gamer and mech pilot, movie star and streamer. Pastel blue sundress, hair in a neat pony tail, manicured fingernails and white ballet shoes.

 

“… Hmm, suppose that's alroight”, Junkrat finally said. Hana lit up in a bright grin.

 

“Awesome!”

 

Junkrat walked out of the shack carrying the grenade launcher, Hana following him closely. He had an uneven strait, his mechanical leg slightly shorter than his real one, making him wobble forward. Hana was sure he'd be pretty tall if he just straightened his back a bit.

 

He lead her around the shack to a long, narrow stretch of grass littered with smaller and bigger craters as well as patches of brown and black where the grass had gotten burnt. At the end of it, there were a couple of training bots Hana recognized from the combat simulation range, although these ones didn't seem to be turned on. They were propped up against some rocks, several of them missing bits and pieces. A heap of metallic parts nearby told her there had been even more bots before.

 

“Watch yer step”, Junkrat said. “Might still be mines 'round.” Hana just smiled at him. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she already liked him. “Roight. Well, here ya go.”

 

Junkrat handed the launcher back to her. She hadn't noticed before, but it had a lid over the nozzle painted like a grinning smiley face.

 

Hana raised the weapon, peering at the bots up ahead. She aimed for a moment and then squeezed the trigger. The launcher made a _thunk_ sound as the grenade lobbed out, lazily sailing through the air. She didn't think it would hit at first, as the force hadn't been nearly as great as she had been expecting, but the grenade bounced across the ground and landed near the bot, exploding into a satisfying ball of fire. Hana couldn't help but giggle.

 

“Heh”, Junkrat huffed. “Not too shabby, mate.”

 

Hana shot towards the bots a few more times, getting the hang of the way the launcher behaved. She kind of liked it, even though it was very different from her own weapons. She had half a mind taking a selfie with it. She knew people liked that; tiny girls with big guns.

 

“I'll show you my mech”, Hana said, giving the launcher back to Junkrat. She pulled out her phone and quickly flipped through her album, bringing up a photo of the MEKA. “Here she is, my baby.”

 

“That's yer ride?” Junkrat wondered, squinting at the picture. “Think I could have a look at it sometime?”

 

“Of course! I can call one down whenever I want.” Hana absentmindedly touched her bracelet again. She hadn't expected Junkrat to catch onto it.

 

“What, with this thing?” he asked, his hand reaching out and grabbing her wrist before she could react, trapping her hand underneath his steel grip.

 

Hana Song was the only person in the world who could call down a mech with the use of her bracelet, to anyone else it was useless, as her finger prints and DNA were required to activate it. Unfortunately, her hand was squeezed against the bracelet by Junkrat's mechanical fingers.

 

She heard the bracelet beep.

 

“Oh _no_ ”, she groaned. Junkrat looked confused. Hana took advantage of his grip on her to pull him back a bit, stepping away to clear a space for the mech. A circle of pink light appeared on the grass and just a split second later, a giant mech dropped from above, landing hard on the ground in a burst of light, making everything tremble.

 

Junkrat's surprised _whoa_ turned into a mad cackle as the mech unfolded, straightening up, readying for battle. He let go of Hana in favor of bouncing closer to the mech, circling around it, inspecting every inch of it. Hana watched him, amused. He looked like a kid in a candy store.

 

Her phone buzzed; when she looked at it she had gotten a ton of messages from her bodyguards. She sighed. She knew they'd show up in no time now, as they were always immediately alerted when her mech was activated and had its exact position. She considered for a moment jumping into the MEKA and boosting away to lead them on a merry chase, but then decided against it. She had tormented them enough for one day.

 

Meanwhile, Junkrat was peering into the cockpit, investigating the cannons, poking at the joints and armor plates, looking at the boosters on the back and frowning at the Korean letters.

 

“Do you like it?” Hana wondered, grinning.

 

“Ehh, suppose it's okay”, Junkrat said, even though he was obviously impressed. “Wouldn't mind takin' it apart, though. How'dya even get into this thing?” He scrambled to climb up the open hatch, his metal fingers gliding against the leather interior. Hana snickered, but then reached out to stop him.

 

“Hey, I don't think that's –“

 

“What's this button do?”

 

Hana saw what he was reaching for a moment too late.

 

“ _No!_ ”

 

She heard the telltale hum of the engine quickly overloading, the buzzing sound making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and her fingers twitch. Grabbing Junkrat by the hem of his shorts, she dragged him down from the mech and at the same time used him as elevation to reach inside the cockpit. She heard an annoyed sound from Junkrat and ignored it, slamming her hand onto the automatic booster button.

 

The mech moved underneath her and she hurried to get out of it again just as it shot off towards the practice bots. The limbs of the MEKA curled back into it, neon green light seeping out of every crack and joint, the entire thing vibrating with raw energy.

 

Hana grabbed Junkrat by the arm and ran, dragging him with her as she dove for cover behind the nearest building. They just barely managed it in time, the blast from the mech self destructing sending them flying off the ground, falling forward into an uncoordinated heap. Hana grunted at the impact, feeling the rough dirt ground dig into her skin in more than one place, her ears ringing with the sound from the explosion.

 

For a moment she lay still, breathing slowly, mentally checking that no part of her was seriously injured, like she had been taught to do. Then she slowly managed to prop herself up onto her elbows, looking over at Junkrat next to her to see if he was okay. His mechanical arm was bent in an unnatural angle and for a moment he didn't move. Worry tugged at her.

 

“Junkrat?”

 

He twitched.

 

“Hooley dooley…” he said, sitting up with a bit of effort, his movements stiff like he had been hurt. Then he suddenly straightened up and blinked, looking down at Hana. His hair was even messier than before. A crazy grin spread like wildfire across his face. “ _Let's do that again!_ ”

 

Hana couldn't help but laugh. Junkrat cackled too, like a maniac, throwing his head back and roaring at the sky. Hana rolled over onto her back, stomach aching from the impact and from laughing.

 

A shout pulled her back to the situation at hand.

 

“Miss Song!”

 

Her two bodyguards appeared out of nowhere, running towards her, worry painted on their faces behind the black sunglasses. One of them knelt down next to Hana and helped her up; the other one pulled a gun and pointed it in Junkrat's face. He looked down the barrel, unimpressed at the tiny weapon.

 

“We heard the explosion, are you alright?” the one helping her up asked, in Korean.

 

“I'm fine, don't worry about it”, Hana replied, waving him off. She dusted off her dress, trying to smooth it down to no avail; it was a mess, much like her hair. And her manicure.

 

“Miss Song, did this man hurt you?” the other bodyguard wondered. Junkrat looked annoyed; Hana guessed he didn't like having a gun shoved up into his face, along with the fact that he presumably didn't understand what they were saying.

 

“No”, Hana said, in English. “He didn't hurt me. We were just trying out our weapons.” The bodyguards didn't look convinced.

 

“Miss Song, this man is a wanted criminal.” He spoke English now too, which pleased Hana, even though his logic didn't.

 

“This man is my _friend_ ”, she said, determined.

 

She pushed away the guard with the gun and offered Junkrat a hand to help him up. He reached out his mechanical hand, but when Hana took hold of it and pulled, there was an unexpected popping sound. Suddenly she was holding Junkrat's arm, detached from the rest of his body. Both of them stared at it for a moment, and then burst out laughing again. The bodyguards exchanged confused looks.

 

Once Hana had calmed down a bit she stretched out the arm towards Junkrat.

 

“Need a hand?” she asked, which sent him into a new fit of giggles. Despite that, he grabbed onto the arm and Hana helped pull him up. “See? We're both good. You two will _not_ be harassing him because of his criminal record, okay?”

 

One of the bodyguards heaved a sigh.

 

“If that is your wish, Miss Song”, he said, with the tone of voice of someone who had said the same thing many times before.

 

“Good. Now hop along and I'll be with you soon.” She gestured towards them when they didn't move. “Go on, go! You know you have to help me file a report later.”

 

Sighing, the bodyguards complied and slowly started walking away, glancing over their shoulders every ten steps to make sure Hana would follow. She rolled her eyes at them and turned back to Junkrat, who was poking his nose with a finger of his loose arm.

 

“Sorry 'bout yer mech, mate”, he said, surprising her.

 

“Oh, don't worry about it. I have tons more”, Hana reassured him, smiling. Junkrat's eyes lit up, which made Hana laugh again. “I'll make sure you can have a proper look at one someday, okay?”

 

“Alroight.” He seemed more than excited at the prospect.

 

“Well, I guess I have to go”, Hana said. “But it was nice meeting you! We should do this again.” She winked at him. Junkrat snickered.

 

“As long as there's explosives involved, I'm on board.”

 

“Figured you'd say that. Well, goodbye!” Hana waved at him and then hurried to catch up with her bodyguards, who seemed relieved. When she turned around to look back Junkrat was waving at her with his mechanical arm, tongue sticking out. Hana giggled and waved at him again, pleased to have made a friend already.

 

* * *

 

 

Lúcio liked kissing people. Not necessarily in a romantic way, just little pecks and smooches here and there, a habit he had picked up from his huge family. They were all very intimate and physical people; hugging, touching and kissing came as natural as him as saying hello. He'd kiss Hana's mech before a fight for good luck, kiss Lena's cheek when saying goodbye, kiss Zarya's biceps when she flexed as a token of appreciation, kiss Genji's smooth metal head when the cyborg was feeling down. None of them seemed to mind; most of them seemed to like it.

 

There was one person he had never even gotten close enough to touch, and that was Jamison, or _Junkrat_ as he liked to call himself. Lúcio didn't mind the nickname, since he thought it was very fitting; the man did remind him of a rat, all nerves and jitters and lanky muscles. But he meant that in the best possible way. Rats were cute.

 

One of the reasons Lúcio had never really spent time with Junkrat was because of his body guard, the enormous Roadhog. Unlike Junkrat, Lúcio had no idea what the terrifying, mask-wearing man's real name was. He almost never spoke, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking behind the mask. He was one of the few persons Lúcio actively stayed away from, partly because he didn't want to get on the man's bad side and partly because he and Junkrat seemed to be those types of people who really just wanted to be left alone, and Lúcio didn't want to make either of them uncomfortable.

 

He rarely saw them around the base in Gibraltar; they obviously didn't leave as they didn't have permission to and would get arrested as soon as they stepped off the peninsula, but they must have found some place to hide.

 

Lúcio was outside skating around the base late one afternoon, headphones filled with music that made his adrenaline rush and his heart pump, when big raindrops started falling from the sky. He slowed, looking out across the ocean towards the horizon; a massive dark cloud was rapidly moving closer. It looked pretty cool, and he paused to take a picture with his phone for his social media, but he didn't particularly feel like getting caught in it and headed for cover.

 

He didn't get far before the rain really started pouring down, smattering against the asphalt. Lúcio yelped and boosted his speed, zipping past a couple of buildings and in through an open door, into a small maintenance shack that stood half forgotten at the edge of the cliffs.

 

“Whoa, whoa, hey!”

 

Putting his heels in, he braked as much as he could, bracing himself against the wall to not fall over. He came to a halt right in front of a sulking Junkrat, who eyed him suspiciously. The man was sitting in the corner of the shack, arms wound around his knees.

 

“Uh. Hey, man”, Lúcio offered, giving him a friendly smile and taking off his headphones. Junkrat didn't reply. He was wearing dirty shorts and a pink t-shirt Lúcio was pretty sure belonged to Hana.

 

Lúcio looked around the single room; it wasn't very big. Roadhog wasn't there, but it looked like both him and Junkrat had been there plenty of times before. There were weapons, ammunition, explosives, all kinds of metal pieces, circuit boards and wiring lying around, on the ground and on a couple of small tables. There were food packages, cans and bottles, bags of chips and the occasional plate with unidentifiable leftovers here and there, too. They had put up things on the walls as well, which made him smile; schematics, lists of things where most of the words were misspelled and posters depicting mechanical bits and bobs. There was a poster of Hana too, signed by her, but with bunny ears on top of her head drawn in a different pen. It looked like all of it had been there a while.

 

“So, is this where you two like to hide?” Lúcio wondered, looking back at Junkrat. Still no answer. The rain came down harder outside, the roar of it against the roof loud enough that he had to raise his voice to make sure the other heard him. Plus, he was pretty sure Junkrat was half deaf from all the explosions already. “I like it. I – hey, is that my headphones?” He caught a glimpse of silver and neon green among all the other things. They didn't look quite as in-one-piece as the last time he saw them. “Ah… well, I've got more.”

 

He hesitated for a moment, and then went to sit down next to Junkrat, at a respectable distance. They were quiet for a moment, looking out through the door at the rain.

 

“You like it here?” Lúcio asked, trying to be friendly. Junkrat glanced at him.

 

“Whaddaya mean?”

 

“Here, at the Watchpoint. You like it?” he elaborated. He hurried to add: “I mean, I know it's probably not much better than prison, since you can't leave and all, but –“

 

“S'better than prison”, Junkrat cut off. “Trust me.”

 

“Oh. Sorry.” Lúcio chewed on his lip. He hadn't meant to offend the other, let alone remind him of his criminal past. “So, what are you guys making in here?”

 

“Ammunition. Traps. Explosives. Things that go _boom_.” Junkrat snickered a little and even though the sound wasn't entirely healthy, Lúcio was still glad the other seemed happy. It was easy to forget Junkrat was actually one year younger than Lúcio. When he was on the battlefield, shooting grenades around and cackling like a maniac, he looked young; all other times he seemed worn down and exhausted.

 

“Oh yeah? What are you making with my headphones?” Lúcio couldn't help but wonder. Junkrat gave him another weird look.

 

“Jus'… tryin' somethin' out.”

 

“With audio?” Lúcio grinned, excited. “I can help you out if you wanna. Or maybe you can help me out. I've been aching to upgrade my equipment.” He gasped as an idea struck him. “Oh oh oh, I have an idea! Get this: _sound bombs_. You drop 'em wherever and at the impact they start playing whatever song you choose! That way my music can like, be in more than one place at the time!”

 

“Sound bombs”, Junkrat repeated. He brought his mechanical hand up to scratch at his chin. “I guess that could be a thing.”

 

“Hey man, I've noticed a lot of your grenades don't really, uh, hit the enemies a lot of the time?” Lúcio continued. “You know, if you talk to Torbjörn I bet he's got some tricks that'll make aiming a lot easier.”

 

“Eh, aiming's overrated”, Junkrat said, which made Lúcio laugh. Junkrat smiled a little too, and this time it looked more natural.

 

“Tell you what?” Lúcio said, standing up. “It's not raining so badly anymore. If we make a run for it we could probably make it to the entrance over there without getting soaked.” He pointed. Junkrat didn't look convinced. “I think it's dinner soon. Torbjörn promised he'd make _Swedish meatballs_ ”, he said, mimicking the engineer's ridiculous accent. “You want in?”

 

Junkrat was quiet again. Lúcio didn't want to push him too much if he wasn't interested in joining the others. He wouldn't be surprised if Junkrat didn't want to go because Roadhog wasn't with him.

 

“Well, you're welcome to join us if you want to.”

 

Lúcio headed for the door, bracing himself before stepping out into the rain.

 

“ _W_ _ait!_ ”

 

The shout from Junkrat made him spin around again, surprised. Junkrat had gotten up from the floor and was staring at him like he was doing magic, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. He had stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to grab Lúcio, but had stopped with his fingers inches from the rain, like he was afraid of getting wet.

 

“What?” Lúcio asked, a worried wrinkle between his eyebrows, searching Junkrat's face for an answer. He was rapidly getting wet, but it wasn't actually that bad; the rain was pretty warm. He was more worried about his tech getting damaged.

 

“How… are ya doin' that?” Junkrat wondered, frowning.

 

“What, getting soaked?”

 

“Nuh, yer like… it's not hurtin' ya?”

 

Lúcio stared at him.

 

“It's just rain, dude.” He knew the other was from Australia, but surely it rained there sometimes?

 

“It's not… acid?” Junkrat looked genuinely worried.

 

Suddenly it clicked for Lúcio. Junkrat was only twenty five years old. Australia. The Omnic explosion. The Outback.

 

Junkrat had never experienced rain that wasn't acid before.

 

“Aw, dude”, Lúcio said, without being able to stop himself, a wave of pity for the other welling up inside him. “It's not acid. It's not dangerous. It's great. Come on.” He held out his hand, inches away from Junkrat's. “Trust me.”

 

Slowly, Junkrat stretched out his hand a little bit more. As soon as the first rain drop hit his skin, he pulled back again with a sharp breath. He looked at his own hand, seemingly realizing that the water hadn't hurt him. He met Lúcio's gaze with an almost childlike wonder in his eyes, one that sent a shiver down Lúcio's spine. Junkrat reached out again and this time Lúcio gently grabbed his tawny, calloused hand and pulled him out into the rain, grinning at him.

 

Junkrat cowered a bit at first, still afraid, but then let go of his hand and gradually relaxed. Lúcio could see his eyes jumping around, taking it all in; the heavy clouds above them, the drops smattering against the buildings, the water running in rivulets along the ground. Junkrat snickered a little, a sound that soon turned into a full-on cackle. He turned his head up towards the sky and Lúcio watched as he closed his eyes, the raindrops creating clean stripes across his sooty face. Again he looked so _young_.

 

Lúcio was suddenly overwhelmed by a startling affection for Junkrat, and he couldn't resist going up on the tips of his toes and pressing a kiss against his cheek. Junkrat jumped and drew back a bit, eying him anxiously. Lúcio hurried to throw up his hands to show he meant no harm.

 

“Sorry, man, I just…” he begun. “Uh. I dunno.” He grinned. “You were hella cute.”

 

Junkrat looked like he barely knew what the word _cute_ meant. Lúcio chuckled.

 

“You coming then?” he wondered. Junkrat appeared to be considering it for a moment.

 

“I gueeess…” he finally said, obviously still suspicious. “Dun think 'Hog's gonna appreciate it, though. He dun like meat.”

 

“Don't worry about it, me either”, Lúcio said, grinning now that Junkrat had agreed to coming along. “Torbs promised he'd make me and Mei some vegan ones. There's probably gonna be enough for your buddy too. Come on.”

 

He skated ahead a bit and then paused, turning back to see if Junkrat was following him. They were both more or less soaked at this point, but Junkrat looked like he didn't care, so Lúcio decided that he didn't care either.

 

For a moment, Junkrat didn't move. His gaze went from Lúcio to the clouds above, the shack behind him, the pools of water on the ground, and then back to Lúcio. Finally, he seemed to heave a sigh, and then started walking towards Lúcio, following him back to the main Overwatch buildings. When he got closer, Lúcio saw that he had a little smile on his face.

 

* * *

 

 

”What is it?” Junkrat wondered, suspiciously studying the plastic cup.

 

“Boba tea!” Hana replied, enthusiastically, taking a long drink from her own cup. She had gotten strawberry for herself, mango for Lúcio and standard milk tea for Junkrat, as she hadn't known what flavor he preferred.

 

They were sitting in her room, on the floor, games and movies and comic books scattered around them, along with chips, popcorn and candy. Hana had wanted to stream while the three of them played horror games together, but Winston had protested, pointing out that it wouldn't be very good publicity to have two of Overwatch's youngest and most famous members be seen with one of the world's most notorious criminals. In the end they had settled for just watching movies; there were so many of the Junkrat had never even heard of before.

 

“Looks weird”, Junkrat said, sniffing at the straw.

 

“Dude, it's delicious.”

 

“Looks like lil' tadpoles goin' up the straw”, Junkrat said, giggling. Hana burst out laughing as well, and Lúcio nearly choked on his tea.

 

“Aw, come on man, why would you say that?” he wondered once he had stopped coughing, solemnly looking at the dark pearls in his drink. Now he could never unsee it.

 

Lúcio had been inclined to agree with Winston. Even though Junkrat was doing a lot better for himself now, he still had moments where his rather violent tendencies resurfaced, and it would be unfortunate if that happened during a stream. Lúcio felt like the most obvious change in Junkrat's behavior was how far he was willing to stray from his bodyguard these days, and for how long. Initially they never left each others sides; now Junkrat could spend hours and hours with Lúcio and Hana without seeming the least bit worried about it. Lúcio had even gotten the impression Roadhog was thankful for the pause in his duties.

 

He couldn't help smiling as he watched Hana and Junkrat bicker about what movie to watch next. Hana wanted to watch _Titanic_. Junkrat wanted something with more explosions.

 

“I wanna see _Mad Max_ again!”

 

“We've already watched it five times this week!”

 

They had gradually been giving him a makeover during the last couple of weeks, one step at the time, slowly, backing off whenever he thought it was too much. Giving him clothes had been the easiest part; he took whatever he got. Shirts, pants, sweaters, socks, underwear, a pair of Lúcio's old boots. Both Lúcio and Hana liked to wear brightly colored clothes; now Junkrat did too. Of course everyone around the base noticed, and they all encouraged it, Angela and Mei especially. They thought the two of them would be a good influence on Junkrat. Lúcio hoped they would be too.

 

Making him wash had been more difficult, as he was still very suspicious of water. He didn't trust it to be clean. Furthermore, he didn't see why _he_ needed to be clean. Lúcio had bribed him with sweet-smelling soaps and shampoos until Junkrat had agreed to try them out. It was strange seeing him without all the dirt and soot, and Junkrat seemed to be unsure of whether he liked it or not, as if it had protected him somehow. Apparently he had freckles underneath all the filth, which was kind of cute.

 

And then came the most difficult part; cutting his mess of hair.

 

Lúcio and Hana toiled for over an hour, dousing his burnt and damaged hair with conditioner and slowly brushing it out, taking care not to tug too much and pull his brittle hair out. Junkrat tolerated it, initially, but then grew more and more grumpy, muttering and twitching where he sat. Lúcio played some of his music to make Junkrat calm down a bit, and it seemed to work. They trimmed down the torn ends of his hair and then debated what to do with the rest. Junkrat had a huge bald spot near the back of his head, and there was no good way of hiding it.

 

Eventually, when Junkrat started getting jittery, Lúcio took a hair clipper to it and simply shaved off half his hair in one go, effectively hiding the bald spot by removing the hair around it too. Junkrat had tensed underneath him when he did it, but Lúcio guessed he realized that if he moved it would get messed up. In the end, he got a pretty neat sidecut, with the remaining hair hanging down the other side in frizzy waves. Hana had suggested dip-dyeing the ends to make it look like it was on fire, but they had decided to leave that for a later day.

 

“How 'bout we watch the other _Mad Max_ movies?” Lúcio suggested. Hana's eyes widened in alarm; she shook her head and mouthed _NO_ as Junkrat lit up.

 

“There's more than one?” he asked, nearly bouncing in his seat. Lúcio laughed as Hana groaned, but she complied and looked through her extensive movie collection to find what they wanted.

 

As she looked, Junkrat told them the story of how he and Roadhog had committed a heist against a moving security truck transporting money, in a manner not too different from the movie they had watched. Roadhog had been driving a motorcycle; Junkrat road along in the sidecar, lobbing grenades at the vehicle.

 

“Oh my gosh, that sounds awesome!” Hana exclaimed as she loaded up the movie. “I wanna hang out with Roadhog sometime, he sounds like fun.”

 

“It sounds dangerous”, Lúcio said, but couldn't help but smile. Junkrat giggled.

 

“It's only fun if it's dangerous”, he said. He slurped a drink of his boba tea for the first time, eyes growing wide. “Hey, this is pretty good!”

 

“Told ya.” Hana reclined against some pillows as the movie started. “Hey, don't forget your meds.”

 

Junkrat grumbled a little but took the pills with his tea anyway. He had gotten them from Angela after Lúcio and Hana had convinced him to go see her. Unsurprisingly, he had suffered slow radiation poisoning while living in the Outback, and the amount of dangerous bombs and explosives he had been around had done their part too. Angela had given him some pills to suppress the damage from the radiation, and Lúcio always kept his music on when Junkrat was around, which also helped.

 

The radiation was hardly the only thing messing up Junkrat; he had micro-fractions in his upper leg and hip due to the makeshift prosthetic, a number of broken bones that hadn't healed correctly, a few second degree burns, as well as several cuts, bruises, scars and general aches here and there. Angela's biggest recommendation had been for him to take off his current prosthetics while waiting for new, better fitting ones to arrive and to take it easy for a few weeks. Or months.

 

Junkrat had refused.

 

They were still working on trying to convince him. Lúcio was sure he'd come around sooner or later, which he told Angela; Junkrat just needed some time. He had spent a lot of his life having no one looking after him or taking care of him, and it took a bit of adjusting. The clothes, showering, haircut and medicine was improvement enough for now.

 

“This movie dun look like the other one”, Junkrat complained.

 

“It's a lot older”, Lúcio said. “Ohhh, I know what you'll like: _Pacific Rim_.”

 

“I love that movie!” Hana shouted, clapping her hands together. Lúcio snorted.

 

“I am not surprised.”

 

“Oh shut up.” She gave him a shove, making him grin. “Let's watch that instead!” She stopped the _Mad Max_ movie and started going through her library again, before anyone could protest.

 

Junkrat was slowly drinking his boba, pearls going up the straws one by one. He chewed them thoughtfully, his expression almost wistful. Lúcio watched him for a moment.

 

“Hey”, he said. “Watcha thinking?”

 

Junkrat looked away, pursing his lips.

 

“Dunno. Yer jus' bein' real nice ta me, is all.”

 

Lúcio and Hana exchanged glances for a moment.

 

“Well, of course we are”, Lúcio said, smiling. “We like you.”

 

“Yeah!” Hana agreed. “You're my favorite rat-person.” She leaned forward and ruffled Junkrat's hair, making him grin. He batted her hands away, but seemed pleased.

 

“Thanks, mate”, he said, quietly.

 

“Aww, are you blushing?” Hana chirped, way too happy about it. Junkrat started to protest but was cut off by her squeal of delight. “ _Junkraaat!_ ” Lúcio chuckled as Hana tried to get a good look at Junkrat's face, while he dodged and turned to keep away. “ _You are sooo cuuute!_ ”

 

“Hey, hey”, Lúcio said, holding up his hands to stop Hana when it was clear Junkrat had gotten enough. Hana backed off, still smiling. Lúcio looked from one to the other for a moment and then straightened up a bit. “You know what we need? A selfie.”

 

“A what?” Junkrat asked while Hana gasped.

 

“Yeah!” she agreed.

 

Lúcio pulled up his phone and moved closer to Junkrat, Hana doing the same on his other side. He started the app and held up the phone, front facing-camera on so they could see themselves. Junkrat seemed to realize what was going on and stared at his reflection on the phone for a moment before a smile made its way onto his face. It was real and genuine, not a trace of the slightly deranged part of him that sometimes still showed through. Lúcio and Hana smiled as well, pleased, leaning closer.

 

“Say cheese!” Lúcio said, grinning.

 

“Why?” Junkrat asked just as Lúcio took the picture.

 

Hana and Lúcio couldn't help but burst out laughing at the result; Hana had her best selfie-face on, Lúcio was grinning wildly, and Junkrat was mid-question, expression confused and eyes closed. All three of them loved the picture, and Lúcio agreed to print out a few copies so they could put it up in their respective rooms.

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out a bit longer than I expected, but writing this honestly made me really happy and I hope it made you happy too! <3


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